Gao Sanwa got so badly spooked by Shansier that he straight-up jumped.
His head snapped back—
BAM.
The back of his skull slammed directly into Shansier's chin.
Shansier grabbed his jaw and dropped into a squat.
Gao Sanwa clutched the back of his head and also squatted.
The two of them crouched there together, groaning in stereo, both in so much pain they couldn't get a full sentence out.
A long while later—
The pain finally subsided.
Gao Sanwa rubbed his head and protested,
"Whoa, Steward Shansier, what kind of person do you think I am? Scribbling on Dao Xuan Tianzun's sacred statue? Even at my most unhinged, I know that's forbidden territory. I've never even thought about it. Honestly, sounds like you were the one imagining it."
Shansier felt a sharp wave of awkwardness.
"I absolutely did not!"
Gao Sanwa shot back,
"You definitely did."
Shansier raised his voice,
"I absolutely did not!"
Seeing that this was going nowhere, Shansier immediately changed the subject.
"Enough. Why are you even here?"
Gao Sanwa saw there was no escaping now and sighed.
"I… drew a picture book. I came to look for Sister Yiye, hoping she'd help front some money to get it printed."
"…Huh?" Shansier blinked.
"…Huh?" Li Daoxuan blinked too.
Gao Sanwa explained,
"Didn't Sister Yiye self-fund Dao Xuan Tianzun Subdues Demons last time? I want to do the same with my own book. But my parents won't give me the money, so I had no choice but to come ask her."
Shansier clicked his tongue.
"When did you start messing around with this stuff?"
"I've always liked it," Gao Sanwa said matter-of-factly. "Studying just doesn't work for me. Once I hit the upper grades and math, physics, and chemistry showed up, I was completely lost. So during class… I drew."
Li Daoxuan smiled to himself.
This kid's walking a familiar path.
Middle school was barely manageable. High school? Total blackout. He scraped through by copying exam papers, pivoted into art and design, and eventually became a freelance designer. Life had a sense of irony.
Shansier thought for half a second, then sighed.
"Not every child is cut out for studying. People like you… do exist."
He held out his hand.
"So. What did you draw? Let me see."
Gao Sanwa hugged his manuscript defensively.
"You won't burn it, right? I only have this one copy."
Shansier laughed.
"I'm not your mother. I'm not here to ban your hobbies."
After thinking it over carefully, Gao Sanwa finally handed it over.
Shansier flipped it open.
Li Daoxuan leaned in, mentally zooming the pages.
It was a classic fighting-and-revenge story.
The rough outline: a young boy enters a Daoist sect, becomes a disciple, but because his talent is mediocre, his master looks down on him.
That master's design looked… suspiciously like Ma Tianzheng.
Fair enough. Gao Sanwa had probably only ever seen one Daoist in his life.
The master refuses to properly teach him Quanzhen sword techniques. His fellow disciples bully him relentlessly—
And those disciples looked an awful lot like Young Master Bai and the Third Young Lady.
Which was impressive, considering they were actually Gao Sanwa's close friends.
In the story, Senior Brother Bai and Third Junior Sister lead the harassment. Finally, the protagonist snaps and declares:
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. One day, you'll all see what I'm really capable of."
He had even inserted dialogue.
Li Daoxuan sucked in a sharp breath.
"What the hell—this kid a transmigrator? He knows that line?"
Shansier chuckled.
"That saying comes from villages along the Yellow River between Shanxi and Shaanxi. The river changes course so often that a village can be east one year and west the next. It spread from Heyang County. Not bad, kid. Your head isn't completely empty."
Li Daoxuan froze.
"…So that's where it's from?"
Great. Learned something new again.
The story continued.
The protagonist trains like his life depends on it. His swordsmanship breaks through. He defeats Senior Brother Bai and Third Junior Sister—and eventually even overcomes his own master, Daoist Ma.
Then he descends the mountain, sword in hand, roaming the world and becoming a legendary hero.
Li Daoxuan was impressed.
"Full underdog progression. Absolute classic. Inventing trash-to-legend storytelling in this era—you're flying."
Shansier finished reading and stayed silent for a long time.
Finally, he said,
"You don't need to ask the Saintess to fund this. The book bureau will publish it."
"…What?" Gao Sanwa's eyes lit up. "For real? Steward Shansier, you're not lying to a kid, right?"
Shansier glanced sideways.
"You're sixteen. You're not a child anymore. I'll talk to you like an adult."
He continued calmly,
"The bureau pays for printing. Profits are split fifty-fifty. Do you accept?"
Gao Sanwa nearly burst with joy.
"As long as it gets printed, I don't even need a share! I just want to see my book exist!"
Shansier snorted.
"That's what you think now. When it sells well and makes real money, you'll feel cheated if you weren't paid—and you'll resent the bureau for it. Adults settle these rules before emotions get expensive."
Gao Sanwa didn't fully understand, but one thing was crystal clear.
His book was getting published.
He whooped and jumped.
"Fine, fine, whatever! Hurry up and print it! I want to shove it in my parents' faces and flex!"
Shansier smiled, shook his head, and carried the manuscript into the bureau, arranging woodblock carvers and printers to handle it.
Li Daoxuan watched the whole thing, thoughtful.
This development… is actually promising.
At present, Gao Family Village's bureau mostly printed textbooks—language, math, physics, chemistry—and established picture books like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. The only original work was Yiye's Dao Xuan Tianzun Subdues Demons, which leaned too hard on propaganda to be a genuinely good story.
Gao Sanwa's work, though?
This could spark something new. Picture books. Sequential art. Maybe even the early bones of comics.
If it caught on, this would be worth watching.
Alright. Side business concluded.
Back to the real objective.
Where did Gao Yiye go?
That girl—just where did she disappear to?